News
News
YHJS success in Northern Ireland
At the end of September twenty SYO juniors travelled to Northern Ireland, as part of the Yorkshire & Humberside Junior Squad, to compete in the Junior Inter-regional championships – the most prestigious of all the junior competitions! We decided the easiest way to get there was to fly from Manchester to Belfast, which added greatly to the excitement levels! Accommodation was based in a school in the coastal town of Newcastle, where we slept on camp beds in 2 big halls. It is safe to say that it wasn’t a hugely conducive environment for sleeping!
Day 1 of JIRCs is the individual day and it was with great excitement that we set off for a Tyrella, a challenging sand dune area on a military base. In 2021 YHJS finished 2nd in the individual competition and we were hoping to equal that achievement again. In fact it soon became clear that we were having a fabulous day and our athletes were performing their socks off. Could we actually beat the Scots?! Yes we could! 4 class wins out of 6 (Anna W14, Freya W16, Emily W18 and Euan M18) and 3 2nd places (Ella W14, Robbie M14 & Immy W18) were enough to put us into the lead and lift the individual trophy for the first time since 2011. Well done also to our other scorers – Oscar, Conrad, Jamie, Lotte & James.
Post competition we headed back to Newcastle for a fabulous meal as a squad, before the evening ceilidh and prize-giving.
We awoke bright and early on the Sunday for the relays and headed back to Tyrella for the 2nd day of competition. The relay teams are made up of a 14, 16 and 18, with the 16s setting off first. There was great excitement early on when Freya returned first in the girls competition and the excitement continued when Immy set off less than a minute behind the leading Scottish girls team on last leg. However, a problem dibbing at the last control meant that, despite recording the fastest leg time, she crossed the finish line in 2nd place. Not long after our 2nd girls team of Lotte, Ella and Emily crossed the line in 7th place ensuring enough points to lift the girls overall winning trophy!
In the boys relays we had a few mishaps with injury and mistakes but nonetheless there were still some excellent performances and our top 2 boys teams finished in 6th (Conrad, Robbie & Euan) & 10th (Oscar, James & Olmo). This was enough to ensure Yorkshire finished 2nd in the relays and 2nd overall. Another fabulous JIRCs competition. Well done to all the SYO juniors who took part – Caspar, Oscar, Robbie, Ella, Anna, Charlotte, Alice, James, Conrad, Freya, Lotte, Ciara, Alexandra, Imogen, Euan, Olmo, Sam, Dylan, Jamie and Evan (who was selected but was too ill to compete). Next year we head to Wales!
3 out of 3 for the SYO juniors!
On Saturday, after the event at Endcliffe, 34 SYO juniors travelled to Sutton Coalfield to compete in the Peter Palmer relays. For the uninitiated, this is a junior competition that starts in the early hours of Sunday morning. After a brief stop for pizza, the team arrived at the sports centre ready for the 5 aside football! This quickly morphed into 20 aside – SYO against everyone else – in which SYO was victorious with the winning call scored by John! We were off to a good start…..
At 10.30pm the lights went out and we all settled down on the sports hall floor supposedly to sleep, although there was an inordinate amount of giggling, coughing and rustling before eventually there was anything resembling silence! Then, in what seemed like no time, the first leg runners and supporters were up and off to the start. By 5am Conrad, Max and Matthew were all lined up on the start line with the other first leg runners surrounded by a thick blanket of fog. There was a minute’s silence in memory of the Queen and then they were off into the darkness.
After two hours and 42 minutes of furious racing, the rest of team Killer Bees joined Euan on the run in to take the Peter Palmer trophy; the first time we have won this trophy since 2013! Then, before we’d had chance to finishing celebrating, James appeared and was joined by his teammates to win the Joan George plate, awarded to the best “young team.” They were quickly followed by the SYO Wannabees, who took 4th place overall and 2nd place in the Joan George competition. Three teams safely in! Attention turned to the Daybreak competition, could we possibly win the daybreak bowl as well? Right on cue, Alice appeared from the mist. Yes we could! 3 out of 3 trophies – an excellent night of racing! Congratulations to all our juniors, who all performed brilliantly on very little sleep and in difficult foggy conditions.
Killer Bees - Max, Jamie, Imogen, Olmo, Ciara + Charlotte + Penny, Euan – winners of the Peter Palmer trophy
Bumble Bees – Matt, Robbie, Freya, Ella, Nathan + Freddie + Oskar, James – winners of the Joan George plate
Wannabees – Conrad, Anna, Caspar, Maxwell, Hannah + Lucy + Margaux, Oscar
Bees Knees – John, Will, Rafferty + Jack, Alice – winners of the Daybreak bowl
Worker Bees – Pasco, Alexandra, Walter + Wilson, Lawrence
A huge thank you to COBOC for hosting a fantastic competition, Jacky for co-ordinating the team and all the parent chauffeurs!
Success in the sunshine at Lakes 5 day
More than 80 club members holidayed in the Lakes this summer, combining more traditional holiday activities with 5 days of orienteering competition. The terrain was challenging, the sun shone and SYO picked up lots of podium places! Congratulations to:
M10 1st Louis
M12 2nd Oskar
M14 3rd Caspar
W14 2nd Charlotte
M16 3rd James
W16 2nd Freya
W21S 2nd Mary
M35 1st Joe
M45 1st Nick B
M45S 2nd Todd
W50 2nd Lucy
M70 3rd Peter
M80 1st Brian
World Masters Sprint Champions!
A small contingent of SYO members headed off to sunny Italy in July for the World Masters Orienteering Champs. This is a very prestigious event with the best orienteering veterans from around the world competing in the sprint, middle and long disciplines. Our best results came in the sprint with both Nick Barrable (M45) and Peter Gorvett (M75) taking gold! A fabulous achievement. In the middle distance, Martin Ward achieved the best result placing 5th in M55, whilst in the long distance Nick just missed out on a medal taking 4th place and Charlie Adams placed 10th in M55.
World Masters Sprint Champions!
A small contingent of SYO members headed off to sunny Italy in July for the World Masters Orienteering Champs. This is a very prestigious event with the best orienteering veterans from around the world competing in the sprint, middle and long disciplines. Our best results came in the sprint with both Nick Barrable (M45) and Peter Gorvett (M75) taking gold! A fabulous achievement. They are pictured alongside other GB medal winners in the photo, courtesy of CompassSport Magazine. In the middle distance, Martin Ward achieved the best result placing 5th in M55, whilst in the long distance Nick just missed out on a medal taking 4th place and Charlie Adams placed 10th in M55.